NIA arrests Kerala youth Habeeb Rahman in two-year-old case where 14 accused from Kasaragod district joined Islamic State

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday arrested a 25-year-old man who was absconding in connection with a case of Islamic State (IS)-inspired youths from Kerala joining the West Asia-based terror group, officials said.

Representational image. Reuters

Habeeb Rahman, from Wayanad in Kerala, was arrested in the two-year-old IS Kasaragod Module case, the agency said in a statement. "The case relates to the criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused persons from Kasaragod district of Kerala and their associates since Ramadan, 2015, with the intention of joining and furthering the objectives of IS Daish," it said.

The agency said that as part of the conspiracy, 14 accused from Kasaragod district had left India or their workplaces in Middle-East Asia between mid-May and early July, 2016, before travelling to Afghanistan or Syria, where they joined the IS(Daish).

It said that accused Nashidul Hamzafar and Habeeb Rehman remained in touch, over encrypted social media platforms, with other absconding accused persons in this case like Abdul Rashid Abdulla and Ashfak Majeed. Rahman will be produced before the Special Court for NIA Cases at Ernakulam Thursday, it said.

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